New to setups, need help with an idea.

[SQ SUBARU]

Do I have a local car audio shop? If so I highly! Recommend going and listening to speakers/subs before u buy. There is a lot of people out there that will tell u different things. For me personally if I was doing my first setup with no know how, I would do... 1) A good quality headunit with 3 rca preouts (alpine, pioneer, kenwood) u can get ones with signal processors etc. 2) a good set of component speaker for the front of the car (alpine, infinity, focal etc.) this way u get good sq what ur looking for and u have the sound coming from the front of the car. (Spend a good amount of money on the front speakers as that's 70% of the sound/music) 3) a nice 4 channel amp to power the front speakers (Rockford , alpine ...) 4) rear speakers coaxial, if u want not necessary but if u want them then go ahead , it's just personal taste. 5) 2 ten inch subs / or 2 12s in a sealed box or ported if u want a little more bass output sound. 6) a mono (1 channel amp) to power the subs. Make sure u get the correct amp to power them though (look at Rms watts) and finally wire to hook everything up, rca leads, speaker wire, power and ground wire for the 2 amps, and a fuse!! I highly recommend going to a store and listening first and listen to a few different setups done professionally. Don't go 2 overboard on lots of power (amps) as u will have to look at upgrading ur electrical in the future , which u will not have to do for ur first setup! Just build a simple but quality system designed right and ul be blown away. I would get around a 50x4 4 channel amp, and a 500-600 watts RMs mono amp for the subwoofers. Anything over that ur really have to look at more $$$ on electrical upgrades.

[Souldrop]

First off youtube and your friends aren't necessarily good sources of information. They may know a little bit, but I would guarantee you would benefit considerably more from listening to the people on this forum. The "sound" of a sub will really depend on the box and overall install more so than the sub's size. You probably need to start small. I would personally start with a small amp and sub that you can buy cheap locally and play with it, become familiar with how a sub sounds and behaves. Its amazing how much even changing the direction of a box can change the sound. Try and figure out from there which direction you want to go. After that I would start upgrading door speakers and adding a 4 channel amp. If you are looking to install everything yourself you need to gradually ease into it and figure out what you want/need. If you're going to have it installed then you may throw a lot of money at it, and still not be happy with it. Your plan right now is sort of ambitious involving multiple woofer sizes in possibly isobaric or infinite baffle setups. I don't know how much electrical, woodworking, or fabrication experience you have, but that also may be a limiting factor.

[xan326]

Man you have 6-7 cuft net to play with

Why are u even looking at shallow mounts?

If you want a IB setup (slimar to free are but not the same) look at Fi audio

http://store.ficaraudio.com/ib3-series/

If your looking into an IB set you won't be needing an elect upgrade

As you power will down to like 3-600rms per sub

You could do 2x 15" IB (or 2-3 if any other size) in the space you have available on 1k

But if you want spl with some sq thrown

Do a ported box sub,port fwd sealed off

Idd still stick with 12-1500rms to start with

As for the speaker your looking at they are for an active setup, with the knowledge you have idd stick with a standard set of components

Side not

Stop lesioning to your friends advice

They seem to leading you astray from you seem to looking for,

Keep it simple

And you can't fail

Do I have a local car audio shop? If so I highly! Recommend going and listening to speakers/subs before u buy. There is a lot of people out there that will tell u different things. For me personally if I was doing my first setup with no know how, I would do... 1) A good quality headunit with 3 rca preouts (alpine, pioneer, kenwood) u can get ones with signal processors etc. 2) a good set of component speaker for the front of the car (alpine, infinity, focal etc.) this way u get good sq what ur looking for and u have the sound coming from the front of the car. (Spend a good amount of money on the front speakers as that's 70% of the sound/music) 3) a nice 4 channel amp to power the front speakers (Rockford , alpine ...) 4) rear speakers coaxial, if u want not necessary but if u want them then go ahead , it's just personal taste. 5) 2 ten inch subs / or 2 12s in a sealed box or ported if u want a little more bass output sound. 6) a mono (1 channel amp) to power the subs. Make sure u get the correct amp to power them though (look at Rms watts) and finally wire to hook everything up, rca leads, speaker wire, power and ground wire for the 2 amps, and a fuse!! I highly recommend going to a store and listening first and listen to a few different setups done professionally. Don't go 2 overboard on lots of power (amps) as u will have to look at upgrading ur electrical in the future , which u will not have to do for ur first setup! Just build a simple but quality system designed right and ul be blown away. I would get around a 50x4 4 channel amp, and a 500-600 watts RMs mono amp for the subwoofers. Anything over that ur really have to look at more $$$ on electrical upgrades.

First off youtube and your friends aren't necessarily good sources of information. They may know a little bit, but I would guarantee you would benefit considerably more from listening to the people on this forum. The "sound" of a sub will really depend on the box and overall install more so than the sub's size. You probably need to start small. I would personally start with a small amp and sub that you can buy cheap locally and play with it, become familiar with how a sub sounds and behaves. Its amazing how much even changing the direction of a box can change the sound. Try and figure out from there which direction you want to go. After that I would start upgrading door speakers and adding a 4 channel amp. If you are looking to install everything yourself you need to gradually ease into it and figure out what you want/need. If you're going to have it installed then you may throw a lot of money at it, and still not be happy with it. Your plan right now is sort of ambitious involving multiple woofer sizes in possibly isobaric or infinite baffle setups. I don't know how much electrical, woodworking, or fabrication experience you have, but that also may be a limiting factor.

What's the difference between components, and buying the midwoofers tweeters and a single processor? I don't see much of a difference other then installing less parts, and I'd have more control over what frequencies play through everything. And I'm looking at the 13.5" shallow mount just because it's design is different from other subs, the size is right in the middle of 12 and 15, and I'm just wanting to know if it sounds good or better then other subs.

There's a "shop" but its a mess, sells nothing but kicker subs, all the speakers are one brand, and the head units are one brand. Bestbuy has a better thing going then they do. I already have my head unit, it has 3 rca outs. And wouldn't rca replace the speaker wire? And a 50x4 channel amp would work for my speakers now, but I plan on upgrading.

I'm looking to install everything myself, saves time and money. Me and my friends took out everything to get to the rear deck, got the old speakers out, put the new ones in, did the wiring, and put everything back the way it was in less than 20 minutes. That "shop" we have here told us it'd be two hours, which means they just want the money. I already know I'm wanting the Crescendo mids and tweets, some sort of 6 channel processor (unless I can get 8 channel: tweets, front mids, back mids, sub), and then I'll figure the subs and amps after I get the speakers in and find a processor that fits my needs.

[john253a]

ill i can say is you lead a horse to water but can't make it drink?

there are many resins why we are recommend not to go active, but I'm not wasting any more of my time explaining why when your not interested in lesioning,

it is your money and your ride to do with as you please,

but you will spend more money and time, and get less then you think,

my 2c done

[Souldrop]

You can't judge how a sub or even a system as a whole is going to sound just off brand and size. Everything is going to be 90% dependent on the install. I would go the route of 6.5 components and whatever subs you want personally. The subs will require probably require a lot of research and trial and error to get the sound you say you want. You may have to build several boxes and try several different directions. I don't personally see a need for a signal processor, but if you want one go for it. Most component sets and amps tend to come with their own crossovers. I just think going the route you're headed down is extra trouble and possibly money for something you're probably not going to really notice over the alternative. If you want to do it your way, by all means feel free. If you spend the time to research and do everything correctly then it will sound fine.

[xan326]

ill i can say is you lead a horse to water but can't make it drink?

there are many resins why we are recommend not to go active, but I'm not wasting any more of my time explaining why when your not interested in lesioning,

it is your money and your ride to do with as you please,

but you will spend more money and time, and get less then you think,

my 2c done

You can't judge how a sub or even a system as a whole is going to sound just off brand and size. Everything is going to be 90% dependent on the install. I would go the route of 6.5 components and whatever subs you want personally. The subs will require probably require a lot of research and trial and error to get the sound you say you want. You may have to build several boxes and try several different directions. I don't personally see a need for a signal processor, but if you want one go for it. Most component sets and amps tend to come with their own crossovers. I just think going the route you're headed down is extra trouble and possibly money for something you're probably not going to really notice over the alternative. If you want to do it your way, by all means feel free. If you spend the time to research and do everything correctly then it will sound fine.

john, if I buy speakers and tweeters separate (such as the Crescendo mids and tweets) I would need at least a crossover wouldn't I? I know component sets come with their own little ones, but the Crescendo's don't except for their component sets which isn't what I'm looking at. And a 8 channel (4 stereo channels) would be great, have my tweets, front mids, back mids, and subs with the crossovers and the hipass/lowpass all in one box, where I can mess with it instead of configuring every amp (again don't know what exactly I'm getting) and every crossover. Plus if I only have one box for the crossovers, would that not take less installation time then installing each individual crossover? As for the subs, I'm open to ideas, but I'm wanting the opinion on the JL 13.5" sub. I see nothing wrong with wanting opinions on more subs to broaden my options. For amps, if I DO end up going the route of the Crescendos, I know I need at least two, one for mids and subs and one for tweeters; but if I get a sub where the rms is way way off the rms of the mids (I've noticed 5ch amps usually have the sub at 2-4 times the power of a bridged stereo) I'd need yet another amp. I know it will cost a bit more to have the processor, but if it brings simplicity to the tuning of everything and makes everything look better or gives me more options; I'd rather have that. I know we probably disagree on thoughts here, especially sine this is my first build, but try to understand what I'm saying.

Souldrop, researching is taking forever. I know people say this brand is better then another, and such. But each brand has so many different series and subs within those series. I'm open to any ideas on subs, which is one reason why I'm wanting to know how good the JL 13.5" is, or other shallow mounts. Some people have posted brands on here that I've never heard of before, and neither have my friends. I could go looking around at the few places here where I live, but that wont work; The actual car audio place here doesn't have displays of their subs, just a bunch of boxes stacked, plus the place is a complete mess and the couple times I went in there their service was terrible and prices were outrageous, plus I couldn't even tell who was an actual employee not that anyone payed attention when I walked in. There's bestbuy, they have more of a selection and actual displays, but its mainly just kicker, pioneer, kenwood, and I think they have one jl on display and playing, but they're all the cheaper end of the brands so I already know they most likely wont be the best, they probably did this because common people will know the brand names and they don't show other brands because of common people not knowing them. Walmart here doesn't have too bad of a selection, they have a few displays but they never run them.

I want to find a place where I can hear the majority of the different brands and such, basically like a microcenter (microcenter is basically a giant store just for computer components, its actually a fairly good place to look for stuff within computers) for car audio.

Can you suggest what the best subs from each brand are? That'd help a lot.

[SQ SUBARU]

I suggest going to ur nearest shop or installer and listening to some subs etc and full setups first, and read bcae1.com and reasesrch on there first. Everyone has their own opinions on what sound the "best" and "good" so go and listen to each brand at a shop first. As everyone else has said do some research first and find out what u goals are and if u want to do it yourself or not. For a beginner start with a single 12" or dual 10s or 12s in a sealed box (2-3 cubic ft) with a mono sub amp and a nice 4 channel for some front coaxials or components , if u chose component speakers for the front doors, just use the passive crossovers that the speakers come with to make is simple and easy. Look into alpine products they have some really good low end daily options. Look on sonic electronix and they have amp and sub/ speaker setups that are matched.

[xan326]

I suggest going to ur nearest shop or installer and listening to some subs etc and full setups first, and read bcae1.com and reasesrch on there first. Everyone has their own opinions on what sound the "best" and "good" so go and listen to each brand at a shop first. As everyone else has said do some research first and find out what u goals are and if u want to do it yourself or not. For a beginner start with a single 12" or dual 10s or 12s in a sealed box (2-3 cubic ft) with a mono sub amp and a nice 4 channel for some front coaxials or components , if u chose component speakers for the front doors, just use the passive crossovers that the speakers come with to make is simple and easy. Look into alpine products they have some really good low end daily options. Look on sonic electronix and they have amp and sub/ speaker setups that are matched.

As I've said, the "shops" here aren't that great for the purpose of research. And for the speakers; right now I have 2 coax in the back, everyone says component is better then coax so I'm getting component. The problem being is what I'm looking at right now, Crescendo sells the mids by themselves and tweeters by themselves, thus I would have to get a crossover or processor. I also like the idea of the single processor, I can change all the passes and such on one box instead of messing with all of it one each separate component. Someone asked me if I wanted a full processor, and I have absolutely no clue what they meant by that.

[john253a]

the jl13.5 i have used many times

it is not a bad sub, but it just lacks compared to other subs as it is designed for very small installed like behind a seat in a truck

if this is what you were doing it would be 1 of the better option

as it is not, it is not

and going the rout your looking is called active

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=how+to+do+an+active+setup+smd

most people won't do this as the time and involved

you need 1ch per speaker or per set of same speakers on same area

and is designed for getting loud i.e. keeping up with 20k sub stage

I've never had an issue with 2 set of comps keeping you with 5k sub stages

for the price and money you will be investing

but if you want to o that route

this is what idd be doing

front

2x pwx 8" 4ohm on a q2-200

4x pwx 6.5 4ohm on a q4-120

2x ft1 8ohm

rear

2x pwx 6.5 4ohm on a q4-120

2x ft18ohm

[SQ SUBARU]

You DO NOT need a processor any anything like that for ur first install/system. Just buy decent quality speakers and a headunit first and u can add a processor later if needed. Look at sonic electronix they have a huge range of gear. For example: http://www.sonicelectronix.com/cat_i1039_car-audio-packages.html. Look here they have good packages with all u need , crossovers included to go with speakers etc.